It is all obvious or trivial except…

It\’s a decision made by politicians: thus it is politics

Diane Abbott MP, Labour\’s shadow public health minister, said: \”I think women and families across the country will find it staggering that the priority for this government is playing politics with people\’s lives, like this.

Whatever your view on where the abortion time limit should be it is a decision made by politicians. It is thus, inevitably, politics.

If the Health Secretary stands up and says “We should do X”, and doesn’t say anything about whether we should do Y, it’s hardly unreasonable for the opposition health spokesman to say “The Health Secretary’s priority is to do X instead of Y”. Because that’s what he’s said.

(in practice, there is absolutely no chance of this happening in this parliament and very little chance of a vote being tabled, since it would be divisive and fail – this is much more about Hunt getting PR within the Tory party as a socially right-wing candidate to replace Cameron if/when they lose the next election)

If the Health Secretary stands up and says “I think there is a moral case for X should happen but the government has no intention of changing the current rules”, it is completely insane for the shadow health secretary to say “it is the Government’s priority too do X”.

Because, whatever the personal preferences of the Health Secretary (or the Business Secretary, for an obvious example), the government has no intention of attempting it, never mind making it “the priority for this government.”

But, then, as it is Diane Abbot (no private schools, except for my kids), we shouldn’t really be either surprised or concerned.

SE: the “But obviously we have no intention of changing the rules” point was raised subsequently by Hunt’s staffers (presumably acting in “oh fuck what has he said now?” mode), according to the Telegraph piece. It isn’t what he said in the interview.

It’s true that Hunt is playing politics, false that politicians are unable to swerve interview questions when they want to, false that this is a government priority, and false that the government itself is playing politics with the issue.

So I score 1/3 for Abbott, 1/1 for john b, 1/2 for SE, and 0/1 for Tim, who surely does know the meaning of “playing politics”.

Playing politics just means offering the voters a say. What she wants is for the three Lib-Dem parties to stick to their common position so that the voters are not offered a choice. As with the death penalty and immigration.

Diane Abbott probably contributes the least to British political life of all the buffoons we have ruling us, and I look forward to the day she no longer does so at all.